[metaverse]

Hi everyone I was wondering if someone out there could offer a novice some knowledge?

I use my laptop mainly for internet and media use. Movie watching, music playing, DL'ing , emailing ect ... I had No performance or stability issues with my laptop however I just moved to a new apartment so I figured a fresh reformat of the HD and a fresh install of XP could clean out some accumulated crap.

So I went through and found all the media I wanted to save before a fresh system reformat/install.

After that I popped in the XP install disc and restarted my ACER ASPIRE 1520.

I came to the blue XP install screen ... pressed F8 to agree like a good boy and then came to the hard drive partitions.

to my surprise not only did I have hard drive partitions C and D [on a single disc] but also a hd partition called

" :- eisa tools "

I thought to myself "I do not remember seeing that before"

so after weighing my assumptions for a couple of mintues I thought "eh, i'll delete it and reinstall xp THEN deal with the issues if they pop up" ... part of me was still saying "dont do it, DONT DO IT"

so I did it ... deleted all 3 partitions and then created 2 new partitions. I then selected which partition I wanted to install XP on and came to the NTFS or FAT format screen ...

I selected NTFS and *blip* ... the computer shut off.

So I turned it back on after checking the power adapter and making sure everything was secure, it was.

At this point on multiple occasions with the computer going *blip* and shutting off at various random points in the course of the XP install blue screen (non further along than the NTFS format section) I then decided to go into BIOS.

So I restarted the computer , pressed F2 to get into bios and I did ...

Although I couldn't use ANY OF MY KEYS, NONE OF THEM, NOT EVEN ONE besides the power button. So after staring at the bios specs screen in frustration I hit the power button. I then restarted and got back into bios but now my keys were working and I could browse through bios and I didn't end up doing anything other than changing the boot order making the CD-ROM first and the hard drive second.

If I have it set up so that the HD is first the message I receive is :

"NTLDR is missing - press ctrl+alt+del to restart"

I then DL'd a disc checking tool from here to find out if my HD is failing or not:
http://www.hitachigs...32_v409_b00.iso

I burned the image and ran it in the computer. Well guess what - it boots however my keyboard will not work once the cd is engaged. The keyboard will also randomly stop working when i'm in BIOS , whether or not the CD is in the drive... I then tried again and got it to run the disc check long enough for it to actually go through the process and it returned "successfuL"

SO ITS NOT THE HARD DRIVE ...

At this point i'm guessing that all the main motherboard drivers are probably deleted or something because there was absolutely NON of this unstable stuff going on before i deleted the recovery image stored in the "eisa tools" partition on the drive.

and after doing some google research on EISA tools I decided to also try creating only a single hard drive partition and installing on that and again it would just *blip* and randomly shut down out of no where.

And from all the eRecovery stuff i've read you need the EISA tools partition for it to work so without that HOW would I be able to install all the system drivers [CPU , ect...] without having XP installed ??

Any ideas - i'm drowning in my frustrations to the point where i'm ready to smash this thing in raw rage.

anything helps
~ eric

Edited by metaverse, 16 June 2008 - 07:26 PM.

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The removal of EISA Tools is irrelevant to the problems with the keyboard. It's not needed anyway, just shipped as standard for recovery software.
Why did you not just run the system recovery option initially? Then this wouldn't have been an issue

Running the Hitachi test tool on a non-Hitachi drive is a bit pointless really, download the appropriate utility depending on the drive you have, otherwise the results mean nothing.

[Neil Jones]

The removal of EISA Tools is irrelevant to the problems with the keyboard. It's not needed anyway, just shipped as standard for recovery software.
Why did you not just run the system recovery option initially? Then this wouldn't have been an issue

Running the Hitachi test tool on a non-Hitachi drive is a bit pointless really, download the appropriate utility depending on the drive you have, otherwise the results mean nothing.

[Old Geezer]

Amazing all this from a Novice. Then again maybe not. Blue Cross couldn't fix this.

[Neil Jones]

Amazing all this from a Novice.

Not really considering XP setup tells you what to press and what the repercussions are of actually pressing that button.
Even if you know not that what you're doing if you can type on a keyboard you can use an XP CD and easily cause a lot of damage in under three keystrokes. Just like it happens on the movies where the hero can get into anything anywhere on the exceedingly fast Internet in under three seconds.

[The Skeptic]

As I see it there are several options, taking into consideration that the computer was working OK before the format attempt.

1: CMOS parameters are corrupted and a reset of the BIOS must be performed. Please do the following: disconnect the battery charger and remove the battery. Press the power button for about 2 minutes. Reinstall the battery and charger and reboot. If successful, a message will show up telling you about checksome error or something of this nature. Enter the BIOS, set time and date and save the new parameters. Boot up.

If not successful, open carefully some of the easy-to-open back covers and see it you can reach the CMOS battery. If yes, remove the charger and main battery and then pull the cmos battery out for about 15 minutes. Reinstall and reboot.

2: Try to install XP, formating to FAT 32 and see if you can perform the installation. If yes, run the installation at it's minimum. If successful, run the installation again, this time formatting to NTFS.

3: The XP CD is not clean. Please clean it carefully with fresh water or a lens cleaning solution. It's also possible that the CD drive lens is dirty. Clean it with special CD-drive cleaner (a disk with a brush).

4: I have seen cases in which well running computers failed when formatted. This happens when some parts of the hardware are faulty. This is very difficult to pin point. I hope that is not the case.

[metaverse]

Hello and thank you very much for your helpful reply...

I did as you said and removed the battery and charger and then pressing the power button for 2 min to no success.

I then attempted to disassemble the LapTop and came to a stopping point where it appeared it wouldn't come apart without some serious contorting - however I have no experience with LapTop disassembly either.

I then attempted to format the disc using the FAT32 system and to my surprise when i arrived at the option - the only options available were NTFS and NTFS [quick] ...

So I again tried to format using NTFS quick , it worked and began copying the windows files off the disc for the installation and crapped out around 50 percent or so ...

I'm ready to shoot myself ...

Is there another way to reset the bios other than taking apart the laptop and removing the cmos battery?

[wannabe1]

Hi metaverse...

When you deleted the EISA partition, you removed files that the machine needs to initiate the recovery operation. If you did not create the recovery disk(s) when you first received your computer, your best bet is to order a recovery disk from Acer. You'll find the link to do that on the Acer Support Page.

Once you have that, you should be able to put the machine back to the way it was when it was purchased.

wannabe1

[The Skeptic]

Hi.

In your first post you mentioned that you used XP CD. What CD was that? Was it any original by Acer or was it a commercial version of XP?

When formatting you can use the manufacturer's recovery CD, recover from a hidden partition or install a commercial version of XP (some newer computers won't allow installation of XP after Vista, but I guess this is not the case here).

The EISA tools, as you surely know by now, are required to reset the computer to the factory settings, drivers included. However, if you have another legal XP you can install it just as well. This will require that you download the drivers from the manufacturer's site {quite often you don't even have to do this. The required drivers will be included in the XP, albeit not the newest versions (who needs the newest versions anyway. Many times they give you more troubles then benefits)}.

What confuses me in your case is that some symptoms indicate to BIOS corruption, that's why I wanted you to reset the BIOS.

I think that wannabe1's advise is a good one. Maybe that would be your best option. If, however, you have another version of XP which you want to install, please let us know and we'll try to help you with that. My first objective would be to format the disk in such a manner that will leave it with a fresh and complete NTFS system.

[metaverse]

Hi.

In your first post you mentioned that you used XP CD. What CD was that? Was it any original by Acer or was it a commercial version of XP?

When formatting you can use the manufacturer's recovery CD, recover from a hidden partition or install a commercial version of XP (some newer computers won't allow installation of XP after Vista, but I guess this is not the case here).

The EISA tools, as you surely know by now, are required to reset the computer to the factory settings, drivers included. However, if you have another legal XP you can install it just as well. This will require that you download the drivers from the manufacturer's site {quite often you don't even have to do this. The required drivers will be included in the XP, albeit not the newest versions (who needs the newest versions anyway. Many times they give you more troubles then benefits)}.

What confuses me in your case is that some symptoms indicate to BIOS corruption, that's why I wanted you to reset the BIOS.

I think that wannabe1's advise is a good one. Maybe that would be your best option. If, however, you have another version of XP which you want to install, please let us know and we'll try to help you with that. My first objective would be to format the disk in such a manner that will leave it with a fresh and complete NTFS system.

Firstly I want to express my deep appreciation for the help you folks are offering me - thank you very much.

The Windows CD i've been using is an XP professional SP2 cd. I purchased it OEM from newegg with parts for a desktop I pieced together around the beginning of 2005. I've used this CD on multiple computers with success everytime.

I ended up utilyzing some patience and found that there were two pieces on either side of the plate that has the fan grate on it which could be popped off. Those two corner pieces then unveiled more screws that could be taken out which then led to be able to disconnect the cmos battery.

I unattached it and waited the 15 min and came back to it. I hit the power button and the white acer screen came up next the computer gave the error beep and it said "press F1 to resume" so I did. It then popped up with the same "NTLDR is missing press ctrl alt del to restart" error.

So I then thought "maybe if I unattach the cmos battery again and instantly go into bios to set up the boot settings so that the CD-ROM was first maybe it'll work" ...

So again I waited the 15 min and reattached the cmos - powered up , instantly went into bios and set up the CD-ROM as the primary boot. I then restarted the computer and went directly into windows installation.

From my previous attempts the hard drive was already formated under the NTFS system so I decided to skip the format and go directly to the windows installation. An option then came up to "delete the previous windows installation" which had failed, so I deleted the half [bleep] previous windows installation and began a fresh installation. At this point I was skeptical because it would always crap out about 50-60 percent through the copying of the windows files from the disc to the folders.

And thank goodness it worked!

thanks to your assistance I now have a working computer again ... you guys rock and ill be sure to spread the word about the friendly help from the STAFF of this site.

thanks again and best of luck to you guys
- eric

[The Skeptic]

We are surely glad that worked for you. Thanks for letting us know.